History of DMV

Do you drive? Walk? Ride a bus, ride in a car, float a boat, drive a snow machine, an ATV or a motorcycle? Ever buy, sell, trade or give away a car, boat, motorhome, trailer, bus, van or truck? Then you've come in contact with at least some element of the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

The Alaska DMV is the go-to government agency for anything having to do with road rules, car selling or buying, driving records, and licensing of the thousands of Alaska drivers, private individuals, public transportation and commercial drivers.

What the DMV Does

The Alaska DMV takes care of vehicle registrations and titling and issuing driver's licenses and State IDs. The division is in charge of administering the financial responsibility of the agency, handling issues regarding mandatory car insurance, and the various driver improvement programs. The DMV also conducts administrative reviews in DUI cases. Finally, the DMV also manages, tracks, records and maintains all of the records pertaining to each of these functions, all of which bring in some $35 million annually to the state budget coffers.

The DMV Departments

The DMV is made up of three major units, all of which work together to make the DMV run smoothly and get things such as driver's license and car registrations, on top of everything else, handled in a timely manner. Here are the three units:

• Administration

• Driver Services

• Field Services

The DMV is all about public service and strives to provide you with rules, regulations and laws; not to hamper freedom, but to protect life and property in the area of drivers and vehicle-related situations.

The Three Components

Here's a brief summary of what the three main divisions of the Alaska DMV provide for the people of the Great White North:

Administration

The administrative department handles the overall management of the DMV. This unit does all of the paperwork such as the "hunting and gathering" of records pertaining to vehicle ownership. Administration also takes care of the day-to-day running of the main and branch offices and the different departments, plus does all the accounting for the DMV.

Driver Services:

Driver services does just that―serves the drivers of Alaska. This department also obtains and tracks all records pertaining to insurance, traffic court, DUI court, and other law enforcement issues. Driver services also oversees the various driver improvement programs such as the defensive driving courses and the driving classes for repeat traffic violators.

Something else handled by the Driver Services division is the administration of a special section of the insurance laws, which exist to help the victims of uninsured drivers. This insurance fund helps those victims cover the costs of injuries and other financial and property losses that have occurred due to accidents with uninsured drivers.

One more task given to Driver Services is that of the administrative reviews that are required in cases of driver license revocations and other such actions under the Alaska DUI laws.

Field Services

Field Services oversees the local DMV offices and commission agents that directly serve the public. Field Services takes care of issuing vehicle titles and registrations, driver's licenses and identification cards, plus handles the special registration programs for the personalized and specialized license plates programs.

Field Services also process dual registrations, along with the title applications that are submitted by mail from remote areas and the areas not served by local DMV offices.

Another area of responsibility is the registration of voters, processing the payments for car, motorcycle, truck, van, and SUV registration taxes, verification of the required I/M certificates, and assisting people with their organ donor applications.

Also under the umbrella of Field Services is the processing of citizen identification cards. Add to that the task of generally making sure that people are who they say they are by the verification of the manifold identification documents reviewed each week. Finally, Field Services cheerfully handles the various day-to-day needs of the Alaskan citizen when it comes to anything motor vehicle-related.